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Topic: Google Tablet (Read 14359 times)

Google announced its own brand tablet today, the Nexus 7 which looks like it should be a real game changer in the tablet wars: A 7 inch tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) with a 1280x800 IPS gorilla glass screen, a quad core Tegra 3 CPU and 12 core Nvidia GPU, weighing 12 oz. and selling for $199 with 8GB memory, $249 with 16GB memory.

Google announced its own brand tablet today, the Nexus 7 which looks like it should be a real game changer in the tablet wars: A 7 inch tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) with a 1280x800 IPS gorilla glass screen, a quad core Tegra 3 CPU and 12 core Nvidia GPU, weighing 12 oz. and selling for $199 with 8GB memory, $249 with 16GB memory.

It couldn't have come at a more perfect time! - My mrs just returned a defective tablet for a full refund, which means she can wait a week or 3 and buy this instead (Not like she has any choice, seeing as I am going to pretty much force her to get this, instead of another cheap crappy chinese import MID thing.)

Meh. I've had a seven inch... ... .... tab for 18 months. Samsung Galaxy Tab. It's a great 7" tab. Works great for Nook, Kindle, ePub reader and Angry Birds. Not really great for laptop replacement at work. Browsing sorta sucks. Email and schedule are OK using Touchdown, but it's not great for taking notes. I think a 10" tab works much better for laptop "replacement" during meetings, etc.

When I called to cancel my order, I voiced my disappointment to the Google CS, his response indicated the lack of a memory card support was a common complaint but in Google's defense (his words), the tablet was designed to be a cloud device. I then mentioned that if I was traveling, the "cloud" may not be available/affordable and would therefore render the tablet somewhat unusable. The CS person agreed and was unable to come up with an adequate response.

I am going to wait for the ASUS MeMO 370T Tablet, which is pretty the Google Nexus 7 with memory card support.

But back to the tablet: Where the flock is the external storage you cretins!?!

It has none, which is why I am going to be getting the 16GB model. For my mrs at least, 16GB is plenty, considering a full move compressed well enough can get as small as 350MB, thats still a crap load of entertainment for the price. - Also, theres nothing stopping anybody from hooking up a 64GB thumb drive for extra content.

*EDIT*

or pop a Wireless HDD in your bag, and have any amount of storage you could possibly want!

The GoFlex Satellite™ device lets you take your media library on-the-go and stream it wirelessly to your iPad®, Android® tablets, and smartphones.Take more than 300 HD movies on-the-go*Stream media over Wi-Fi to 8 devices at the same timeAutomatically sync media and documents from your PC or Mac computerEasily access and stream your media using the free app or your device’s web browserUp to 7 hours battery life**

IMO, one drawback of no external memory is in the event that one's device has certain kinds of problems which an owner cannot fix on their own, data stored on the device is vulnerable to being copied, viewed, modified, etc. by the folks who might service it.

Sadly, as I understand it, even with external memory, it appears that owners may not be able to choose to store it there for certain (many?) applications

As I understand it, if your phone is rooted, the situation is not necessarily as described above.

Not sure if I want one or not. Screen is smaller than I'd like but resolution makes up for that I suppose. Battery life is my concern... Recently had a kobo Vox eReader (now waiting to sell on eBay) that looks similar in size and that has terrible battery life.

Another issue, how smooth is the "overall experience". Just bought a cheap Chinese Android 4 tablet last week and it's kind of unresponsive (compared with an iPad). Can't complain at the price I suppose but it's enough for me to decide to sell it. (Firmware has been updated to something "better" than the installed Chinese default - I just wonder is it the machines hardware or just Android 4 that is the problem.)

edit:Right, I see the battery life claims to be 10 hours or so. Considering that the screen res is higher than what I'm used to looking at on the iPad 1, I think I can accept it. Okay, you've talked me into it. I'll buy one.

Doesn't this limited storage issue put you off?Honestly, I have no tablet, but I have this idea that if I did, I would require significantly more than 16GB. Heck, I'm thinking of buying a new phone and I'm even considering SD support as a main buying point. What is your experience with tablets, is 16GB enough?

I understand why 16GB wouldn't be enough but for my own use, 2 gig is probably enough - as I've used hardly anything on the iPad.

On a tablet, I only do web stuff and read PDF files (it has to be PDF as they are all web design/developer related manuals). So, I admit, my tablet use is really like a glorified eReader. I even bought a kobo Touch eReader to see if I could use that instead of the iPad but, obviously, it's a bit rubbish for web browsing and PDF books.

But, yeah, if you are watching lots of vids and need a catalogue of MP3s then I see why you'd need lots of gig.

Not that anyone is asking, but I think we're lacking a decent large format eReader. Kindle sized devices are okay for portability but try reading a manual on one with lots of illustrations, charts, etc. They are totally rubbish. I'd love an e-Ink device with a screen as large as an iPad (or larger), colour isn't required - just long battery life, nice crisp text and, let's go for it, a double screen so it's like a proper book. (Someone has got to make such a device eventually - until then, I don't think we are anywhere near having a proper electronic book.)

Oh. Never had any idea about it (I really don't know what the latest gadgets are, maybe I should start following a few tech blogs).

I see there are a few on eBay (not cheap). I'll see what the reviews say about them but it will still come down to whether they make PDF reading pleasurable on whether I get one. If they were e-ink devices I'd have more faith in them.

Thanks for mentioning them, 4wd.

edit:Read a few reviews, plenty of people saying "[mobile dual screen] this is the future of computing" BUT battery life terrible and other typical complaints, fan noise, etc.

Oh, that's disappointing. Having said that, I wouldn't have wanted a device that size (screens are too small with big fat ugly borders). Portability and "blinking lights" are obviously all that matters. I guess I just want a book, albeit, a magical book with only two A5 sized pages - which then have the power to change/update to new content. I'll start looking for one on Amazon in about 10 years time.

Nudone, do you find that the fact that a book can show you two pages at once is more a "feature" than an artifact of being the cheapest/more convenient way of producing it?Personally, I believe that the fact that it closes on itself (as I suppose such a tablet would) is far more of a nuisance than the few occasions where I need to ping-pong between two pages (which often are not side-to-side but back-to-back due to poor editing ).

Nudone, do you find that the fact that a book can show you two pages at once is more a "feature" than an artifact of being the cheapest/more convenient way of producing it?Personally, I believe that the fact that it closes on itself (as I suppose such a tablet would) is far more of a nuisance than the few occasions where I need to ping-pong between two pages (which often are not side-to-side but back-to-back due to poor editing tongue ).

Yes, good point. Dual screen would be annoying in that way. I've changed my mind. What I really want is a bigger screen tablet (which I think I commented about before somewhere; a large tablet would be good for digital artists and designers - like a mobile Wacom Cintiq - if they can make it light enough to carry and hold).

I admit, 99.9% of the time, I'm happy reading a single (PDF) page on the iPad. But sometimes there are double page spread illustrations/diagrams to view - so, I just automatically thought double screen made sense, but just a bit larger screen that can fit a double page view on it would be perfect.

So, I now want an iPad sized device with a borderless screen so nothing wasted. Oh, and lighter and with better battery - and, colour e-ink screen that can also emit light when necessary.